JLN Ranch: Phantom Horse
by Brambleshadow96
Summary: One-shot. Original story, but I guess it's loosely based off The Saddle Club books. Summary: Let's just say All Hallow's Eve is full of surprises.


**This is a short story I wrote for my Language Arts class. It was supposed to be five paragraphs, but mine ended up being about eight pages (glossary not included). All the characters are from a series of my own I'm working on, but this is where a new character is introduced to the main cast. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.**

**© October 7, 2010**

* * *

**_JLN Ranch:  
_****_Phantom Horse_**

Lynne Acton shivered and pulled her jacket closer to her body as she hurried down the path from the house to the barn. A cold wind had sprung up, and she was grateful to be in the warm barn a few minutes later.

_Well, it _is _close to Halloween. Of course it's going to be cold! s_he mentally scolded herself. The fourteen-year-old brushed her blond hair away from her eyes and started walking down the aisle to her horse's stall.

Starfire, her sorrel Quarter Horse mare, whickered and stuck her head over the door, the white star on her forehead gleaming in the dim stable. Lynne smiled and started rubbing Starfire's face and playing with her flaxen forelock. She was so involved in her horse she didn't hear the footsteps behind her until the person spoke.

"Nice horse."

Lynne jumped, accidentally whacking Starfire, and turned to see who was behind her.

The speaker was a boy who looked to be about sixteen, with coal-black hair, piercing blue eyes, torn jeans, and a black T-shirt.

"Hi," he said. "I'm Jake, the new groom. Sorry if I startled you."

"You didn't," Lynne said curtly. "I'm Lynne, by the way." Her blue-green eyes darted nervously about, looking for her best friends Eliza James and Devon Sharp. With relief, she saw them near Flash's stall, grooming Eliza's black-and-white Tennessee Walker gelding. Her eyes focused back on Jake.

"Look, it's nice to meet you and all, but my friends are expecting me," she said hurriedly. "See you later?"

"Whatever." Jake shrugged and added, "I have work to do anyway." He turned and strolled away, heading towards where they kept the wheelbarrows, shovels, and pitchforks.

When he was gone, Lynne jogged over to Flash's stall. Eliza and Devon paused in grooming Flash's sides to look at their friend.

"Who were you talking to?" Eliza asked with a mischievous glint in her light-green eyes.

"Oh, just the new groom." Feeling uncomfortable, Lynne quickly changed the subject. "Do you guys want to go on a trail ride?"

The response was immediate. "Yes!"

Devon dropped the brush she was using in the grooming kit and slid out of the stall, her short dark hair going into her hazel eyes. The lanky fourteen-year-old quickly headed to the tack room to get her horse's tack. Lynne and Eliza were right on her heels.

...

Ten minutes later, the three best friends were out on their favorite trail. Comet, Devon's bay mare, snorted and pranced a bit, eager to move faster. Her reddish-brown mane flew into her rider's face as she shook her head.

Suddenly, there was a sharp scream from Starfire. The sorrel mare whirled and reared, sending Lynne sliding out of the saddle and landing on the forest floor with a solid _thud_.

Eliza hopped off Flash and hurried over to Lynne. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just a bit sore, that's all," Lynne replied, hauling herself to her feet. She cast a swift glance at her horse. Starfire's brown eyes were calm now, with an apologetic look in them. The mare snorted softly and nudged Lynne's chest.

"Okay, okay." Sighing, Lynne remounted and sent Starfire into a trot, then a lope, working her in circles. She slowed back to a jog and continued along the trail. Flash and Comet were a few horse-lengths behind by the time they started trotting, too.

Devon called to Lynne, "Any idea what made her spook like that?"

"No," Lynne answered, not wanting to say out loud what she thought: _It's like she was a different horse._

Her discomfort must have shown on her face, since Eliza suggested, "Let's head back. The horses have had enough exercise."

Lynne shot her a look of relief. On the way back to the stables, she asked, "What do you guys think the party tomorrow night's going to be like?"

"It's going to be awesome," Devon predicted.

...

Clouds threatened to cover the full moon floating in the dark sky. No one noticed the cool wind either; they were all inside the warm stable—the indoor riding ring, actually.

Lynne looked around for Devon and Eliza; they were going to sit together when the ghost stories began. She spotted them near the ring's center and started walking over to them when the lights dimmed. The young rider quickly picked her way around fellow riding students. She stopped abruptly when she saw her enemy and rival Jade Diamond flirting with Jake. Some emotion raged through her, causing her to wonder, _Am I jealous? How can I be—I barely know the guy!_

Lynne shook her head to clear it and settled down beside her friends on a nearby hay bale that had been brought out as a seat. She was eager to hear some ghost stories.

"Is there anyone who wants to go first?" the head riding instructor asked.

Jake stood up. "I'll have a go."

He strode to the center of the ring, sat on a hay bale where everyone could see him, and began his tale.

"This story is the scariest one I know, and that's because every word of it is true. It's about a ghost horse. Now, I call it a ghost, but it's really more than that. It takes over the body of a horse that is loved and cared for by its owner, feeding on blood.

"It was a dark and stormy night, a night a lot like this one. A young rider—"

"It's not storming," Jade interrupted.

She was contradicted by a roll of thunder going off a few yards away from the stable.

"As I was saying"—Jake gave her a pointed look—"a young rider at the stable by the name of Taylor, yes, I think that was her name, had always wanted a horse of her own. Her family didn't have a lot of money, so she had to settle for riding the lesson horses.

"Finally, by the time she was fifteen, she was able to buy her own horse. Her horse, a chestnut mare named Firetail, was in superb condition, but no one wanted her for long. No one could figure out why.

"Anyway, Taylor had just finished taking Firetail out for a ride in the indoor ring working on her reining skills. That and what happened next is purely speculation, since the grooms and other riders knew that was her habit. After cooling Firetail down and taking her tack into the tack room, she took Firetail's feed and started heading back to her stall. There was no one else around, as it was quite late, and a storm had sprung up, as mentioned before. When she reached her mare's stall, Firetail had vanished."

Lynne shuddered. Either it was the story itself, the way Jake told it, or a combination of both, but she was getting a case of the creeps. Jake's voice had grown softer, and she had to lean forward to hear him.

"Taylor panicked for a moment, thinking someone had taken her beloved Firetail, and then turned to see Firetail standing at the end of the aisle. She at first must have felt relief, but quickly realized something was wrong.

"Firetail had been standing stock-still, but she suddenly snorted explosively and pawed the ground. Her coat started to glow and her brown eyes turned blood-red. It was Firetail, but not Firetail.

"The chestnut mare tossed her fiery mane and started racing for Taylor. Terrified, the girl dropped the feed and tried to barricade herself in Firetail's stall. She had barely turned before those sharp hooves were above her. . . . The phantom horse had claimed another victim.

"The next morning, the stable owner found what was left of poor Taylor. Of course, Firetail was herself again, showing no evidence of what had happened. After asking around, he learned something chilling. The same thing had happened at a stable in the Blue Ridge Mountains fifteen years before. Fifteen years before _that_, it was at a horse ranch in Wyoming. A former jockey said the ghost horse struck at the racing stables where he used to work fifteen years before _that._ So the next time a horse you _think_ you know starts acting strangely, it might be off its feed or having a bad day . . . or possessed by a ghost out for blood. . . ."

Just as Jake finished his story, the whole stable was plunged into darkness.

Jade—at least, Lynne thought it was Jade—screamed.

She saw something bright out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head to get a better look and to see what it was, she gasped.

There was a horse loping down the aisle into the ring, its pelt glowing and eyes the color of red flame. Even worse, she recognized the horse. _Starfire!_

Everybody made a mad dash to the fences. Everyone, that is, except Lynne, Devon, Eliza, and Jake. As soon as the ring had cleared of everyone but the four of them, Starfire trotted inside. She stood in front of her owner, neighing and shaking her mane.

Lynne moved to the side of her horse, hand raised. She ignored Eliza's terrified whisper to stop and started stroking the mare's silken mane. After a few heartbeats, she realized something was off. Starfire's coat felt different and it seemed to catch on her fingers. No horse's coat was like that.

Suddenly, she remembered a scene from a book she had read, _The Secret of Shadow Ranch._ The phantom horse in the story had been made by exposing Japanese silk to light before being put on the black stallion. Her fingers curled around the thin fabric covering her mare's coat. Sure enough, it slid off easily, leaving Starfire looking perfectly normal—except for the red eyes.

Shuddering, Lynne was at a loss to explain the glowing red eyes until Jake spoke up: "Couldn't the red eyes be a reflection?"

_Of course!_ Elated, Starfire's owner turned on her heel, searching for a red light shining in her horse's eyes. She spotted a penlight and a shadow behind it. Without any explanation for her friends, she took off, going as fast a speeding bullet.

The shadow she saw against the wall bolted as soon as it saw her, though how it saw her, she had no idea, it being dark and all.

"Hey, wait up!" she heard Eliza, Devon, and Jake call. Of course, she didn't slow down, following the shadowy figure as it headed into the main part of the stable.

Lynne heard footsteps behind her, even though it was hard to get traction in the sandy ring. Briefly she wondered where the other riders were, but continued running. By now, they were out of the stable and in the front yard heading down to the drive. The rain earlier had stopped, so they didn't have to worry about catching a cold. Everything was washed silver in the moonlight.

There was a black streak that flashed by her and tackled their quarry to the shifting gravel.

_Jake._

Eliza and Devon appeared, skidding to a stop as the wet gravel crunched beneath their feet.

"Great timing," Lynne said sarcastically. "Where's Starfire?"

"She's fine," Devon replied. "We put her back in her stall before joining the chase."

"Speaking of, who is it?" Eliza asked.

"You guys know her?" Jake asked, bringing the troublemaker up to the group.

They just stared, stunned.

"Well? Do I have to help you out?" Jade asked scathingly. "Gave you a good scare, huh?" She grinned.

"No," Lynne replied bluntly, while Devon and Eliza cried, "Yes!"

They fell silent when Lynne gave them a withering look.

She turned her attention back to Jade. "I would ask you how, but I already know. So, why'd you do it?"

"Obvious, much? It's Halloween," Jade retorted, her dark brown eyes flashing. "Although," she added to Jake, "I didn't plan on that ghost horse tale. That was a nice touch, though."

"Will you get to the point?" Lynne snapped. "Why use my horse and not someone else's?"

"Oh, let's see," Jade replied sarcastically, "Starfire already knows me since I used to own her, and I _really_ don't like you. It was easy," she added smugly.

"Jake?" Lynne flitted her eyes over to the new groom.

"Yes?"

"Get her off my property."

He stared in disbelief. "You—you—"

"Yes, I live here. My parents own the place. Now, would you mind?"

"Oh, no, of course not." He took Jade by the shoulders and started leading her away. Before they were too far, Lynne called out, "Where is everyone?"

"The house," Jade called back. "That or they went home."

When she was out of sight, Eliza spoke up. "Well? Do we have a party to crash or not?"

Lynne and Devon exchanged grins and said in unison, "You bet!"

"Race you," Lynne said, haring away from her two best friends towards the house.

"Hey, no fair! Wait up!" Devon called as she and Eliza sped after their friend.

At the house, Lynne thought as she waited for them, _Well, it didn't go quite the way I expected, but All Hallows Eve _is_ full of surprises._

* * *

**Glossary**

**Bay: **Reddish brown coat with black points (markings on the muzzle, tips of ears, mane, tail, and lower part of the legs)

**Black: **the coat must be a definite black with no traces of brown hair. The mane and tail must be black, but the horse may have white markings on the face or legs

**Chestnut: **reddish-brown with no black points. The mane can be darker than the coat or flaxen. There are different shades, such as bright chestnut, red chestnut, and liver chestnut (dark, liver-colored coat)

**Flaxen mane and tail: **the mane and tail are a light, cream color; often seen on chestnut horses

**Gelding: **an adult male horse; unable to reproduce (unlike a stallion)

**Groom: **also known as a stable hand or a term used to describe brushing a horse

**Lope: **a smooth, three-beat gait (Western riding word for "canter" in English riding)

**Jog: **Western word for trot; a two-beat gait

**Mare: **an adult female horse

**Quarter Horse: **American breed of horse; usually used on ranches; so-called for their bursts of speed, which can only be held for short distances

**Sorrel: **usually the same as chestnut

**Star: **facial marking; a small white mark on the forehead, often diamond-shaped

**Stallion: **an adult male horse that can reproduce (unlike a gelding)

**Tack: **equipment used to ride a horse (saddle, bridle, saddle blanket)

**Tack Room: **room where tack is stored

**Tennessee Walker: **originated in 19th century in Tennessee, America. Used for all types of riding and is a "gaited" horse

**Thoroughbred: **originated in England; popular as racehorses. Thoroughbreds are usually high-strung and generally are not used for beginning riders

**Trot: **a two-beat gait; slightly faster than the walk


End file.
